WIP : Hasegawa 1/72 VF-22S Sturmvogel II Pt.13

After leaving the kit to dry for more than 24 hours, I sprayed on a semi gloss coat of Future mixed with some Tamiya flat base (to of course, flatten the finish). Note near the wingtip a somewhat big glob of black oilpaint which I missed out when I was doing the wash. I guess I’ll just explain it away as space debris impact. 😛

Then what remains are the minor details that need to be colored/attached. First up the wingtip and tailfin lights. Red on the left, blue on the right. For this, I painted a base color of silver then brushed on Tamiya clear red and blue. I then topped this off with undiluted Future to shine them up.

The nose is actually bristled with lenses of various shapes and sizes. The instructions call for them to be clear green which I decided to tint them with smoke instead. These are handbrushed with Tamiya smoke and given a coat Future also. To keep track of them I wrote down their part number on a plastic card and used it as a part handler.

The holes where these clear parts go were painted silver and they were attached with PVA glue. The parts fit very tightly in the nose and I actually managed to split the nose open which I had to carefully cement back together.

There are 1 clear lens on each wing.

Then it was time to remove the masking around the canopy. Moment of truth time for most aircraft projects because it tends to make or break the project.

Turns out, I had to use the hobby knife and toothpick to clean up the canopy frame which ended up hazing some of the clear parts. To fix this, I brushed on Future to see if I can shine them up again.